A. Pinochet et al., CONSTRUCTION OF A KNOWLEDGE-BASED SYSTEM FOR DIAGNOSING THE SOCIOTECHNICAL INTEGRATION IN ADVANCED MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGIES, The International journal of human factors in manufacturing, 6(4), 1996, pp. 323-348
The purpose of this research has been to identify and summarize princi
ples that have appeared in Human Factors, Manufacturing, and Managemen
t literature that apply to an ideal Sociotechnical Integration (STI) o
f Advanced Manufacturing Technologies (AMTs) and to develop a Knowledg
e-Based System prototype that, using these principles, can help diagno
se the degree of STI present in an organization that has upgraded or i
s planning to upgrade its manufacturing facilities with AMTs. An abbre
viated version of the system, with only one fifth of the questions, wa
s tested in several Japanese companies, where it could diagnose with a
fair accuracy the level of STI present in them, showing strengths and
weaknesses in the area of STI of these companies. (C) 1996 John Wiley
& Sons, Inc.